8 Ways to Have a Fun Screen Free Week With Your Kids Over Summer

We all want to see our kids spend less time looking at screens, but we can’t expect them to disconnect without giving them a more alluring alternative. Sometimes it seems like our kids, and us for that matter, are hooked on the constant feeling of being engaged with something.

Screen time may provide kids with endless entertainment but there are other ways they can have fun over the summer — you just have to get them interested in the right things. There are many options for you to have a fun screen free week this summer and the following are eight of the best ones you can try!

Go On an Adventure Together

New places and activities will always make a family grow closer together. Ask yourself, what kind of adventure would take you out of your comfort zone? Maybe a week sailing on a boat or visiting an animal farm will do the trick?

Being out of your comfort zone will give you a challenge you can meet as a family. It will help you to work together, which is the perfect way to develop a stronger bond. An unfamiliar environment will also lead to more distractions because everything is new, so the kids will have less of a reason to need their screens.

Go to the Beach Every Day

Often, your days are filled with musts and shoulds — with work deadlines and the pressure of school assignments. Why not make screen free week your laziest week of the year, without feeling guilty? Pack towels and fruit, grab a portable radio, slip on your swimsuits, and spend a week at the beach from the morning till the sun sets.

Make it a point to experience the true meaning of lazy summer days. Read paperbacks on beach chairs, take hour-long siestas, build castles, swim until your fingertips are wrinkled, and have amazing conversations while the sun sets. Your floor may gain a layer of sand and the laundry basket may get overloaded, but those chores should be left for the other 51 weeks of the year.

Make it a Baking Week

Screen free week could also be your chance to bake all the treats you have always wanted to try. Depending on the age of your kids, have them help you in the kitchen. They can read from recipe books, whisk, make shapes with the dough, or even do some creative decorating.

You can even work on a bigger project like making jam or chutney. Have the kids peel fruit or vegetables. Get the jars ready and have everyone learn the process of an old cooking ritual. The kids can then pass on these jars of jam or chutney to family, neighbors, and friends.

Go Camping and Hiking

Make it an old school camping trip. Bring along the board games and have everyone come up with a story to tell by the fire. Wake up early to watch the sunrise and get an old school compass when you are hiking.

Make it a week of exploring and searching for new creatures in the woods. Get the kids to love star gazing, rather than screen gazing, and see how much easier it is to talk to the kids, especially if they are older, about yourself and what you have done over the years and what they are going through. The stillness of the woods will make it easier to bond as a family.

Work on Your Home

It could the living room, one of the kids’ rooms or the garden but working on projects together can be fun and it will cost you less. Get the kids to pool their ideas so they will get interested in the project.

During the week, have everyone work on painting or gardening; planting or accessorizing. When they are busy working with their hands, the kids will be less likely to crave screen time and more likely to talk about funny things that happened to them — things that they may have forgotten to share because screen time was prioritized.

Be a Tourist for a Week

What are those things you have always wanted to do in your own town? Make screen free week a time to act like tourists as a family. Go have high tea in the classiest place in town. Visit attractions you keep putting off. Learn history by visiting museums. Make the week a plane-free holiday for everyone.

Learn Something New Together

It could be yoga, a gardening course, or anything else that interests you. This could be the start of a new hobby for you all. For instance, you and your teen daughter can enjoy the first two piano lessons so much that you agree to continue going every week together to learn how to play. This is a great way to bond as friends, beyond the parent/child dynamic.

Volunteer

Make it a week where everyone stops and realizes how grateful they should be. Volunteer as a family somewhere that is meaningful to you all, like a children’s hospital or an animal shelter.

There are more things you can do, depending on what your idea of fun is and how you prefer to relax. All ideas are good as long as the kids are taking a break from screen time. Of course, the latter will only agree to do so if they see that you are taking a break from the gadgets too. Who knows? You may enjoy it!

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